


poorly kept secrets

by IronSwordStarShield (SweetFanfics)



Category: The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: M/M, Obvious idiots in love are obvious, a whole lotta dumb, reverse fake dating trope
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-09
Updated: 2019-05-09
Packaged: 2020-02-29 03:10:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,038
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18770002
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SweetFanfics/pseuds/IronSwordStarShield
Summary: Due to reasons Tony can’t remember at the moment, he can’t let the world that he’s dating Steve Rogers aka Captain America.--As Jini said "reverse fake dating au for stevetony where they’re dating but they can’t let anyone know they’re together and they’re really bad at it"





	poorly kept secrets

Due to reasons Tony can’t remember at the moment, he can’t let the world that he’s dating Steve Rogers aka Captain America. No, for real. He can’t remember why he agreed to this. He’s dating  _Steve Rogers_! What does it matter what anyone else thinks, right?

 

But Pepper, Fury, and Coulson had gotten together and convinced him that discretion was the better part of valor or  _whatever_  and that it’d be better to take the slow and easy approach to get the public ready for the news that two of the biggest superheroes  _ever_ were dating. 

 

“In a committed relationship,” Steve had correctly immediately and swiftly. 

 

Tony had immediately grinned at him, too big and too sappy but damn. He loves the guy. What can he say?

 

So anyways. The point is that he and Steve have to pretend that they’re not dating even though they’re very much in love. And Tony considers himself to be a decent actor. You wind up becoming one after spending a lifetime being thrust into the spotlight.

 

But it’s hard when it comes to Steve.

 

Tony finds himself reaching out to touch Steve all the time - the inside of his elbow, his shoulder, the middle of his spine - to get his attention. He finds himself pressing against Steve’s side to whisper something in his ear. He’ll steal Steve’s report out of his hand and dart away, telling him in a mocking voice to stop over-working Steve, it’s almost dinner time!

 

Okay, the last one is always deliberately because it’s fun to call Steve out on his hypocrisy when he gets into work mode as well.

 

But the rest? Tony can’t help himself. You may as well ask him to stop breathing. And it’s not even a matter of self control ( _Bullshit_ , Pepper dryly comments). It’s just…he’s got a Steve-dar or like a Steve magnet and he can't help but fall into Steve's gravity and... whoa…

 

He blinks through the stars flashing around his head when he feels a gentle touch against his jaw. 

 

“Tony?” Steve’s voice pierces through the ringing in his head. “Tony, can you hear me? Are you okay?”

 

“Steve?”

 

Tony feels his lips move and form the shape of Steve’s name but he can’t  _hear_ it. Hmm. He must have hit his head harder than he thought. He tries to raise his hand up to touch his head but he can’t. The darkness begins to recede around the edges, giving way to a whole lot of blue kevlar. Oh wow, Steve’s right up in his face. And oh. Is he kinda massaging his jaw and neck? That feels nice.

 

He hears his armor creak as he moves. Next thing Tony knows is his nose is smushed against Steve’s armor. He takes in a deep breath of the dust, smoke, leather scent clinging there and exhales. This is fine. This is good. Even though his nose is killing him, this is just fine.

 

“Tony?” Steve’s fingers are raking through his hair. “Sweetheart? How hard did you hit your head?”

 

“Not hard enough to crack it,” he can’t help but wheeze.

 

In his ear, static crackles before Natasha wryly asks, “Is this your idea of keeping a low profile?”

 

“Given how often we’ve walked in on them in the living room being all PDA and shit? I’d say yes,” Clint answers for them.

 

Elsewhere, Hulk grunts. Tony’s not sure if he’s agreeing with Clint or not. He makes a mental note to ask the big guy the next time he gets the chance.

 

“He’s hurt! I’m just making sure that he’s okay!” Steve is arguing.

 

“By cradling him against your manly bosom?” 

 

 _That_  has Tony opening his eyes to croak, “What the hell, Barton?”

 

“I’m  _just saying_.” Somewhere, far, far in the distance, something explodes. There’s an odd noise on the comms before Clint continues. “This isn’t the low-key way you want the world to know you two are banging.”

 

“ _In a committed relationship_ ,” Steve grinds through his teeth. 

 

Tony weakly pats Steve’s thigh because that’s the closest limb he can reach. “I like exceeding expectations and working on truncated deadlines." 

 

He can imagine what they look like and also how various news outlets are going to present this.

 

–-

 

Sure enough, the next morning, everyone’s talking about the ‘manly’ way in which Captain America stepped in to help his courageous team mate, Iron Man and how they had ‘such a bromance’. Many new anchors were gushing about how 'touching' it was to see such a 'wonderful display of non-toxic masculinity.' Tony leaned hard on the kitchen counter, sipping his coffee serenely while Steve angrily massaged his forehead.

 

“I fear that even if you two were to kiss they would misconstrue it,” Thor muses as he watches the news reports with them while waiting for his toast to warm up. 

 

“Yep,” Tony cheerfully admits. He rubs a hand over Steve’s back. Steve drops his head down into his hands with a heavy sigh. “But don’t do that. We don’t want to give Pepper kittens.”

 

Steve grumbles something that sounds a lot like, “I’ll kiss you when I wanna.” and Tony pretends it doesn’t give him a case of the warm and fuzzies.

 

He keeps on rubbing Steve's back and tells him, "On the bright side, this means we could be a lot more like a couple in public and no one will realize it."

 

"That doesn't make me feel better," Steve sighs. Then he shoots Tony a wry grin. "It's hard pretending I'm not in love with you whenever we're out."

 

His heart melts and grows three times its size under Steve's loving gaze. He leans forward to steal a quick kiss and murmurs, "Me too. But we need to try to follow Fury's plan. For everyone's sake."

 

Steve sighs but doesn't argue.

 

\--

 

Two months later, Steve lets his instincts get ahead of him and he kisses Tony on the field, in plain view of several news reporters. And when someone sticks a microphone under his nose, asking if they're 'anything special,' Steve happily and firmly tells them, "I'm in a committed relationship with Tony Stark."

 

As suspected, Pepper has kittens, Fury blows his top, and Tony just grins at Steve.


End file.
